Former Santa Clara County medical administrator arrested on drug charges

SAN JOSE -- A former high-ranking Santa Clara County medical administrator has been accused of trading prescriptions for powerful drugs such as Oxycontin in return for cash and methamphetamine, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.

Dr. Marvin Bonham, until recently the medical director of the Valley Health Plan, Health and Hospital System of Santa Clara County, was charged Tuesday with 18 felonies stemming from allegations that he wrote prescriptions for county residents who have criminal drug histories.

Bonham, 61, is facing charges of possession of methamphetamine for sale, prescribing without legitimate medical purpose, prescribing to addicts, possession of psilocybin mushrooms, possession of ecstasy and possession of marijuana for sale.

Bonham is out of custody on $1 million bail. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday afternoon at the Terraine Street drug court in San Jose.

Bonham could not be reached for comment.

Bonham worked for Santa Clara County for almost five years, according to county spokeswoman Laurel Anderson. Bonham, whose last day with the county was Oct. 10, was most recently medical director for Valley Health Plan, which serves county government and other public employees.

Anderson would not state if Bonham resigned or was terminated, citing a personnel matter.

"Doctors are supposed to care for the health of their patients, not to recklessly give them access to powerful, addictive drugs," supervising deputy district attorney James Sibley said in a statement.

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The case against Bonham, dubbed "Operation Oxy Exchange," is the result of a multi-agency investigation led by the Attorney General's Santa Clara County Specialized Enforcement Team. Bonham allegedly wrote prescriptions to 29 adults from July 2011 through July 2012, based on a law enforcement report filed in court documents. Sixteen of the adults had a criminal records in Santa Clara County and 10 had been arrested on charges related to drug abuse and/or drug sales, according to the report.

Of the 118 prescriptions written by Bonham, 111 were for drugs such as Oxycontin, according to the report.

On Oct. 3, officers served a search warrant at Bonham's hillside Los Gatos home and located weapons, sale quantities of methamphetamine, marijuana, and ecstasy and a marijuana grow room in the crawl space under his estate, according to prosecutors.

They also found substantial quantities of drying marijuana hanging in the garage, according to the district attorney's office. In Bonham's bedroom, officers found four separate bags of meth, numerous glass pipes with residue consistent with those who smoke meth, a digital scale and hypodermic needles, according to the police report.

Bonham's home was littered with burnt foil and hollowed pens that appeared to have been used to smoke drugs, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Agents with the specialized enforcement team were following up on a number of unusual drug-related police reports revolving around Bonham, his vehicle, storage facility and home, Sibley said. In one case, Bonham reported a theft to San Jose police, claiming someone broke into his unlocked car at Valley Fair Mall and stole a prescription pad.

Bonham was a pediatrician when he last practiced, which was about 20 years ago, Sibley said.

Bonham's roommate, 32-year-old James Schneider, was also charged with three drug-related felonies.

Staff writer Robert Salonga contributed to this report. Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869. Follow him on Twitter @MarkMgomez.